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Minor Fictional Characters in the American Empire Trilogy
This article lists the various minor fictional characters who appear in the American Empire trilogy, a sub-series of the Southern Victory series. These characters are identified, but play at best a peripheral role in the series. Most were simply mentioned or had a very brief, unimportant speaking role that did not impact the plot, and never appeared again. Albert Bauer (Blood and Iron and The Center Cannot Hold) Albert Bauer was a particularly radical member of the Socialist Party organization in Toledo, Ohio.Blood and Iron, pgs. 43-44. He worked with Chester Martin on Upton Sinclair's presidential campaign in 1920.Ibid., pgs. 2441-244. Martin had the impression that Bauer was a thoroughly practical man who might appreciate a bar of shaving soap as a Christmas gift more than anything else.Ibid., pg. 367. He expressed some skepticism of the increased speculation in the stock market in the early 1920s.The Center Cannot Hold, pg. 109, HC. Frank Best (B&I) Frank Best was foreman in a galoshes factory in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1910s and 1920s.Blood and Iron, pg. 81 HC. He was known for sexually harassing his female employees, including Sylvia Enos.See, e.g., Ibid., pgs. 173-177. Caleb Briggs (B&I) Caleb Briggs was a dentist who practiced in Birmingham, Alabama. He served in the Confederate Army during the Great War and was badly injured in a poison gas attack. In the 1920s, he was Chairman of the Birmingham Freedom Party.Blood and Iron, pg. 384. Briggs led a group of Freedom Party men (Jefferson Pinkard among them) to protest a speech by President Wade Hampton V, and witnessed the president's assassination by Grady Calkins. Upon a threat from the Alabama militia that they would be massacred, Briggs ordered the Freedom men to retreat.Ibid., pgs. 514-518. He did his best to keep the Freedom Party moving forward in the bleak period after the assassination.Ibid., pgs. 580-582. Abraham Cantorowicz (TCCH) Abraham Cantorowicz was a Democratic politician who ran against incumbent Socialist Congresswoman Flora Blackford in New York City's Lower East Side in 1926. While not a token candidate, Cantorowicz had little hope of defeating the massively popular Blackford in her home district, and conceded after falling 3000 votes out of 16,000 behind Blackford on Election Night. During his concession call to Blackford's headquarters, he promised that one day Democratic efforts to win the district would bear fruit. He also questioned Flora on whether she planned to run for re-election if her husband, Vice President Hosea Blackford, became his party's Presidential candidate in 1928.The Center Cannot Hold, pgs. 159-161. Chris Clogston (TVO) Chris Clogston'This character is named for a science fiction fan, Christi Clogston, who won a "Tuckerization" auction at the 2001 Millenium PhilCon (WorldCon). The auction benefitted SFWA's (Science Fiction Writer's Association) Emergency Medical Fund, for writers without medical insurance. The details about the character being a quilt vendor and her heritage come from the fan's personal information, though the real life Chris Clogston is a quilter, she is not a quilt vendor. was a quilt vendor in Boston, Massachusetts. She was a ninth-generation Irish-American. She did some work for Sylvia Enos.''The Victorious Oppposition, pgs. 333-336. Ted Culligan (B&I;TCCH) '''Ted Culligan was a son of a family of farmers living outside of Rosefeld, Manitoba, Canada.Blood and Iron, pgs. 361-363. He was engaged to Julia McGregor in the early 1920s,Ibid., pg. 481. until her terrorist father Arthur was killed trying to assassinate US General George Custer. Then he broke off the engagement.The Center Cannot Hold, pg. 10. Virgil Donaldson (TCCH) Virgil Donaldson was a colonel in the United States Army and a member of the General Staff during the Sinclair Administration. In the late 1920s, he listened to a passionate plea from Colonel Irving Morrell for action against the Confederate States after the CS sent troops into Mexico. Donaldson attempted to dissaude Morrell from filing a report on the matter, citing the lack of political will on the Administration's part to act. Donaldson's words proved prophetic. Not only did the U.S. refuse to chastise the C.S., the government exiled the troublesome Morrell to British Columbia.The Center Cannot Hold, pgs. 91-95. Sheldon Fleischmann (TCCH) Sheldon Fleischmann was Max Fleischmann's son. He took over his father's butcher's shop after Max died. Like Max, Sheldon was a Democrat. But he continued his father's tradition of sending cold cuts up to Socialist Party headquarters on Election Day night.The Center Cannot Hold, pg. 161. Joe Habicht (TCCH; RE) Joe "Ed"See Inconsistencies in Turtledove's Work Habicht was the first husband of Rita Martin. He was killed during the Great War on the Roanoke Front.The Center Cannot Hold, pg. 110. His wife remarried in the 1920s. When she learned her second husband Chester, also a veteran of the Roanoke Front, intended to re-inlist when the Second Great War began, she remembered her first husband.Return Engagement, pg. 253. Habicht and Rita never had children. Virgil Joyner (TCCH-TVO) Virgil Joyner was a member of the Freedom Party; he was one of the first people to join, registering around the same time as Jake Featherston and Ferdinand Koenig.The Center Cannot Hold, pg. 28. As he was a staunch Freedom man, he was given the privilege and the duty of being Featherston's personal driver; he also had the privilege enjoyed by few others to address the Freedom Party ruler as the "Sarge."Ibid. While driving in a presidential motorcade through the streets of Richmond in December 1939, Joyner was killed by disgruntled Freedom Party Stalwarts, who were all part of Willy Knight's coup attempt.The Victorious Opposition, pgs. 319-321. Ainsworth Layne (B&I) Ainsworth Layne was the Radical Liberal candidate for President of the Confederate States in 1921.Blood and Iron, pg. 442. While he was defeated by Whig candidate Wade Hampton V, the final polling suggested that his lost was at least in part because of the candidacy of the Freedom Party's Jake FeatherstonIbid., pg. 533. Layne was earnest in his desire to reconcile with both the United States and with the colored residents of the C.S., unpopular positions immediately after the Great War.Ibid., pg. 446. During the campaign, Featherston made much of the fact that Layne was Harvard-educated, and during one speech, accused Layne of wanting to take the C.S. back into the United States.Ibid., pg. 442. Like the Whigs, Layne and the Radical Liberals were subject to violence by the Freedom Party. During a speech in Charleston, South Carolina, Layne's supporters were set upon by Freedom Party Stalwarts led by Roger Kimball.Ibid., pgs. 446-450. Shots were fired, and Kimball had to prevent a Stalwart from shooting Layne.Ibid. Samuel Longstreet (TCCH) '''Samuel Longstreet' was a Whig Senator from Virginia. The grandson of former general and president James Longstreet, Samuel himself was the Whig nominee for the presidency in 1933. He and his running-mate Hugo Black were defeated by the Freedom Party's Jake Featherston, making Longstreet the first and only Whig candidate to lose a Presidential election in Confederate history.The Center Cannot Hold, pgs. 466-469. Harvey O'Doull (B&I) Harvey O'Doull was the father of Leonard O'Doull. In 1921, he and his wife Rose travelled to Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec from his home in the United States to celebrate the birth of his grandson, Lucien O'Doull. During his visit to Quebec he was a houseguest of his son's in-laws, Lucien and Marie Galtier.Blood and Iron, pgs. 268-70. References *American Empire *American Empire